There was a list of good deeds that had the Duke side feeling good. It was a smooth outing.

“When you know what to do, you’re not sloppy, you don’t have sloppy penalties,” Cutcliffe said. “We managed our offense well. We managed defensively really well, being where we were supposed to be.”

“You always find things you know you’re going to have to work on. We found a lot of those. I think we’ve improved (this week in) practice. That’s the key to all of this. The same thing has to keep repeating itself every week. We have a lot of getting better to do.”

There’s a mystery component to this. Memphis didn’t play last week.

“Who knows what we’re going to see,” Cutcliffe said. “Memphis will have different weapons than from what North Carolina Central has on both sides of the ball.”

So before the Blue Devils can claim to have things figured out as they try for their first 2-0 record in 15 years, they’ll receive an indicator today of where they stand.

“Going on the road, that’s when you really find out if you’re tough or not,” receiver Jamison Crowder said.

When: 4:30 p.m. today

Where: Liberty Bell Memorial Stadium, Memphis

Records: Duke 1-0, Memphis 0-0

Series: Duke leads 1-0, winning 38-24 last year in Durham

Extra points …

The Blue Devils are looking for their first 2-0 start to a season since 1998. … This is Duke’s only road trip until Oct. 10. ... Jamison Crowder’s 113 yards in punt returns were the fourth-highest single-game total in Duke history. … Memphis picked redshirt freshman Paxton Lynch as its starting quarterback. … Under coach David Cutcliffe, Duke is 4-0 in non-conference road games against unranked opponents. … Cutcliffe has faced Memphis 15 times in his coaching career as an assistant coach at Tennessee and as a head coach at Mississippi and Duke. He’s 9-1 as an assistant coach and 3-2 as a head coach. … Duke used five true freshmen in its opener, three on defense and two on offense.